This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The aim of this project is to develop method based on SWIFT for detection of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particle-labeled stem cells in biologically relevant doses in the heart. The preliminary ex- vivo imaging of the heart reveals that SWIFT imaginary images present the off-resonant spins as an enhanced (positive) boundary surrounding the region of SPIO-labeled cells while the on-resonant spins are not visible. SWIFT magnitude images provide myocardium anatomies thus eliminating the need for a separate reference image. Such feature of SWIFT facilitates the detection of stem cells compared to the GRE method.